In a recent article on Ad Age by Richard Rapaport titled "Snide Advertising is Bad for Business and Society" he points out the challenges with ads that go negative or play on cynicism. One example is the new Fed Ex / Kinkos ad where the manager is standing in front of his team asking if they can continue to not live up to their resumes, fold under pressure, or waffle on issues.
Trust me...this is a major trend in advertising. I think what perpetuates this is too many agencies are focused on humor, Not that humor is not welcomed in advertising. I think it is. Although when I watch commercials that focus more on humor and less on delivering a brand or something actionable (ie Superbowl ads), I lose my friggen mind.
When ads go negative my biggest fear is that they take that negativity and transfer it onto the brand. Below you will see an ad for Johnson Automotive Group. These ads are hilarious. They depict a badger who is the stereotypical car salesman who is basically crass, sexist, and abusive to customers. The obvious point is that Johnson Automotive is trying to say that those are all of the things they aren't. I just don't know if you can put something that negative next to your brand and not have the two merge together.
My fear is that subconsciously customers will associate Johnson Automotive with the Bad Badger. If that happens, even on a subconscious level, its bad. See all of their ads here.
I am a much bigger fan of going positive and showcasing the good, the unexpected, or promoting something actionable. Creatives who take the low-road with the cheeky stupid humor things really aren't that creative. Most of the time, they really aren't that funny either. I am sure you can recall a number of commercials where you didn't laugh. Humor is a hard thing to pull off and when done bad it really hurts. Sometimes, even if the ads are good, like these, the stench of Snide is hard to wash out.
Decide for yourself:
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